Airfix 1/72 Curtiss Tomahawk Mk.IIB

One of the recent “new tooling” Airfix’s 1/72 starter sets, and relaxingly easy build it is!

This is an out of box build that spanned two weekends but were truncated due to other project commitments & stretched across the month of September.

Markings are for those included in the kit, namely Neville Duke’s* machine whilst he was serving in North Africa with No.112 Squadron based in Libya in 1941.
(*Neville Duke was one of the pioneers in breaking the sound barrier)

Decals are from Cartograph and though good quality are slightly too thick for my liking.
I get why they go for the thicker decals since they’re far more robust as this kit is really aimed for the occasional hairy stick builder & younger modeller.

Panel lines though heavy are acceptable & after a coat of Mr Surfacer they tone down a bit.

Build wise there’s not much to complain about. The front wing leading edge to fuselage joint is a bit iffy, and you need to exercise a bit of care around there. Nothing that a small shim of plastic and filler won’t fix.

Interior detail is perfectly respectable, all I added were some masking tape belts for the seat.

A nice low part count & a reasonably good fit means this isn’t a complicated build.

Paints used were Tamiya acrylics……

…..Followed by the usual pin wash and Lifecolor filters to tone things down and get a dusty look to the airframe.

Comment s as always most welcome, but in the meantime thanks for stopping by & looking.

Thanks Greg. Re. the over-scale panel lines…they are getting a lot lot better with their latest releases:
Their 1/72 Whitley has got the engraved panel lines about right and having seen the recently released 1/48 Walrus which has got very finely engraved panels, there’s nothing now to complain about, I’d say they’ve taken on board a lot of the comments from the Modeller community. Meanwhile, kits like the Tomahawk, well from a couple of feet away they look fine!

Cheers George, these re-boots from Airfix of their old 1/72 back catalogue have got a lot going for them. A welcome break from “AMS” (or the dreaded advanced Modeller syndrome) being one. – Easy uncomplicated builds that look ok once completed, so yup, something for everyone.